Happy World UFO Day!

Perhaps we are “suffering from a deplorable lack of curiosity,” but our family doesn’t devote a lot of time to pondering the existence of alien life forms. Nor do we routinely scan the horizon our world for UFOs. Nor do we spend our days monitoring radio frequencies for messages from other galaxies.

We do, however, occasionally watch movies that deal with such matters — and what better occasion to do that than on World UFO Day?

That’s right, folks, July 2 is World UFO Day, commemorating the alleged crash of a UFO on this date in Roswell, New Mexico, way back in 1947.

So tonight after dinner, we plan to rewatch one of our all time favorites, Signs.

Our family thinks this movie is brilliant. If you’ve never seen it, you should. It is simultaneously funny and sweet and sad and just a little bit scary.

Discussion Questions

It also brings to mind a lot of great topics for discussion, including:

1. Are our lives governed by chance, or do even bad things happen for a purpose?
2. Are you more inclined to view things as miracles or coincidences?
3. What effect does personal tragedy have on our faith? How did it affect Graham Hess?
4. Why did the movie keep flashing back to a scene that had happened months earlier?
5. What explanation did Graham give for his wife’s last words to him? Do you think that impression had changed by the end of the movie?
6. Can you think of any other instances where a message sounds like foolishness to one hearer, yet holds deep meaning to another?
7. Discuss the reactions of the various movie characters to the events on the news. What would you do differently if you thought the world was about to end?
8. Why didn’t Graham tell his family what he saw in the cornfield?
9. Why did the family take time to eat such an elaborate meal when they were so busy with other preparations?
10. Why did Graham refuse to pray at the dinner table? At what point in the movie did that attitude change?
11. Why did the movie end the way it did? There was a lot of important information packed into the final scene, even though no words were spoken. What did you learn?

As I said, this movie is a huge favorite of every member of our family. Here’s a photo from the last time we viewed it:

A Few Fun Facts

Some interesting things your should know about this photo:

• The redhead in the back row is David’s fiance (when we found out she had never seen Signs, we knew we’d have to rectify that situation immediately).
• The blue screen you see reflected in the window is actually a sheet tacked up in our doorway.
• We don’t own a TV, but a few months ago, our kids discovered they could hook our computer up to Mom’s projector and watch movies on the big screen that way.
• That works out pretty well, as it’s a big hassle to set up, and we therefore don’t watch nearly as many movies as we might if all we had to do is flip a power switch.
• The foil hats are to keep aliens from reading our minds.

PLEASE NOTE: There is some very mild language in two scenes of this movie– once when Graham and Meryl are running around the perimeter of their house trying to scare away an intruder, and another time when the cashier at the pharmacy insists on giving her confession to the former reverend. If you’d rather not hear it, just turn down the volume for about thirty seconds during both those scenes and you’ll miss it entirely.

For more fun things to celebrate this month, check out this post: July Holidays and Quirky Celebrations. For enough memory making ideas to last all year long, check out Making Every Month More Memorable or invest in a copy of my Family Fun Bundle, on sale now.